A Peppa Pig Episode Has Been Pulled Off Air Again in Australia

Following complaints from Australian parents, an episode of Peppa Pig has been pulled off air....again.

Here in Britain, we try to ease our children's fear of spiders with phrases like, "it can't hurt you," and "It's more likely to be scared of you." So it's pretty natural for a children's TV series like Peppa Pig, which tackles all kinds of anxiety-ridden experiences such as going to the dentist, starting school and going swimming, to help a chid get over their fear of spiders.

The 2004 episode which looks at Peppa and George's fear of spiders is called Mister Skinny Legs and in it, Daddy Pig tells Peppa that spiders are "very very small" and that they "can't hurt you." Peppa is encouraged to hold the spider and look after it, which is a lovely little message for young children in Britain.

In Australia though, it's another story, with the country housing several species of poisonous spiders. The episode was deemed unsuitable for broadcast by ABC in Australia, but was accidentally broadcast online in 2012 and received complaints from parents that it "said that spiders were not to be feared." ABC immediately pulled the episode, but it appears the episode has aired again, this time on children's channel Nick Jr which is available on Australian service Foxtel.

When a parent complained, Nick Jr refused to remove the episode because the spider "did not look real." Sydney mum Jess told Fairfax Media that she was outraged when Nickelodeon replied to her complaint, stating, "The Episode is light-hearted, friendly and very mild in impact; the overarching message of the Episode is about respecting all creatures." However after the media contacted the channel, they agreed to remove the episode despite commenting that that it did still meet their criteria.

Some spiders in Australia, such as the huntsman, can grow up to as large as 16cm, so Daddy Pig's comment that they are very, very small does not apply to all species in Australia. Some can be extremely dangerous too, with inhabitants such as the funnel-web spider, the white-tailed spider and wolf spider. Recently collected data recorded around 12,600 hospital admissions in Australia relating to a spider bite between 2000 and 2013.